NATURE NOTES 
1 16 
May 2. — Several kinds of bees on bed ; primroses not visited by any insect. 
Curiously enough, both small and large bumble-bees refused to look at any 
primrose at all, but were busy enough on the flowers amongst them. 
May 3. — Two small bumble-bees on blooms ; these visited other flowers 
as well. 
Four kinds of bees have visited primroses occasionally. The hive-bee 
has not been seen to do so. Euphalerum primula has been almost absent 
from a large bed of primroses where last year it was common. On another, 
300 yards off, it was abundant. Its reign is short, three weeks at most, and 
bees do not visit the flower tenanted by it. Violets, dead-nettles, and many 
other flowers growing among primroses, are more attractive to bees than the 
primrose itself. At the end of April, and the beginning of May, when in 
greatest perfection and abundance, it is more neglected by insects than at an 
earlier period. The agency of bees as fertilisers is insufficient ; that of Euphalerum 
primula ample in most instances, where it occurs, and during the short time it 
is out. How the vast majority of blooms are fertilised when primroses are in 
the greatest profusion is still a puzzle. 
Southacre , Swaffham, Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
May, 1906. 
NATURAL HISTORY QUERIES. 
75. Eggs in Mole-hills. — Can you or any of your readers account for 
the fact that when my men were levelling mole-heaps they discovered a hen's 
egg concealed in two of the heaps in an upright position, with the narrow end 
in the hole leading into the moles’ run? In outward appearance the heaps 
were precisely similar to other mole-heaps, and had evidently not been dis- 
turbed by any human being. The same phenomenon was discovered last year 
in another field. Some hens were kept about 300 yards away. 
Alfred Neild. 
76. Woodpecker's Love-call. — We often hear Woodpeckers calling to 
their mates in springtime. When so doing, some kinds tap so rapidly with 
their bills upon the trunk of a tree as almost to produce a musical note, which 
may be heard a long distance. The Greater Spotted, and the Lesser Spotted 
Woodpeckers employ this tapping as a love-call ; but is it a universal habit in 
the tribe? Do Green Woodpeckers tap in this way? Our woods resound with 
their loud voices, which they are so fond of using that one would imagine there 
was no necessity for their tapping when the important business of love-making 
is going on. Last spring I watched two Green Woodpeckers mating. One on 
a tree near me called out and was answered by another half a mile off. This 
went on for some time, and at last they got together ; but there was no tapping. 
Respecting the Great Black Woodpecker, which has been turned down in 
England in the last few years, and has occurred round Euston, Riddlesworth, 
and Brandon, I can find out nothing as to whether it taps or not when love- 
making. Perhaps some one who has had opportunities of watching this species 
in the pine forests on the Continent may be able to tell us what its love-call is. 
May, 1906. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
77. Cuckoos and their Young. Do Cuckoos remember where they 
have placed their eggs ? It is, I believe, generally considered that when a 
Cuckoo has finished laying she leaves all future care of her offspring to the 
unsuspecting foster-parents. Professor A. Newton remarks in the Ettcyclopadia 
BrUannica\ Ninth Edition, vol. vi., p. 686) : “ Of the assertion that the Cuckoo 
herself takes any interest in the future welfare of the egg she has foisted on 
her victim, or of its product, there is no evidence worth a moment’s attention.” 
A little experience of mine in Sussex leads me to think that Cuckoos are not 
quite such unnatural parents as is popularly supposed, but have some parental 
feeling, notwithstanding the fact that they inveigle other birds into hatching 
their eggs for them, allowing them also to bring up their progeny. Four or 
five years ago I came across a young Cuckoo crouching at the bottom of a 
